Saturday, 5 November 2011

The warmists at US State Department seem to think that Africans - particularly young Africans - have not shown enough interest in global warming/climate change recently. That´s now going to change: The State Department is the main sponsor of a new climate missionary project, "Apps4Africa Climate Challenge":

“This is a fantastic time for engagement on climate issues,” said Mariéme Jamme during a webcast on the Apps4Africa Climate Challenge.Apps4Africa is a competition that is collecting ideas on ways to use mobile technology to help Africa cope with global warming. There are three regional competitions throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and nine winners will receive cash prizes for suggesting innovative, practical applications for mobile phones, computers or the Web.Jamme coordinates the Apps4Africa competition for West/Central Africa, one of the three competitions taking place in late 2011 and early 2012. She spoke during a November 3 webcast sponsored by the U.S. State Department, along with State Department Science and Technology Fellow Jeffrey Fox.

By participating in Apps4Africa, “everyone can have their say on climate change issues across Africa,” she said.“The ultimate goal is to make sure that African people are engaged” in addressing their own climate change issues, Jamme said. “We have been listening to the West quite a lot. I think it’s time for Africans to start taking ownership of the climate change issues we have on our own continent.”She pointed out that, for the first time, Africa is hosting the annual United Nations climate change conference, which is set for November 28–December 9 in Durban, South Africa. “We cannot go to Durban without having African people deciding on climate change issues,” Jamme said. “I will be happy if someone says, ‘I did participate in Apps4Africa, I had my say, and now I’m not feeling left out.’”

She said Apps4Africa wants young people to become engaged in climate change issues, with help from mobile technology. “We need to decode what climate change means for them,” she said. “Young people say, ‘I’m getting all this information about climate change, but what can I do?’”“Mobile applications, online, Facebook, Twitter, the radio — all those can help young people understand,” she said.

In each of the three regional Apps4Africa competitions, first-place winners will be awarded $15,000, second place $7,000, and third place $3,000. They may also receive support from Apps4Africa partners, such as help with business plan development, advice or investment.

What could be more trendy than to "engage" young Africans by offering them "cash prices for suggesting innovative, practical applications for mobile phones" to help Africa "cope with global warming", people at the State Department seem to think. But in these times of austerity measures at home, the majority of American taxpayers probably would not like to see their money wasted on useless projects like "Apps4Africa".

Friday, 4 November 2011

The Globe and Mail´s columnist Margaret Wente is again spot on when writing about the euro crisis:

The premise of Europe’s financial system was fatally flawed from the start. It assumed that culture didn’t matter. It assumed that Europeans could be made as interchangeable as euros and that, eventually, they’d all behave like Germans. But now, every cultural stereotype has turned out to be true. The profligate Greeks and Italians are in hock up to their eyeballs to the thrifty, industrious Germans and Finns. The good burgers of Hamburg would be quite happy to let Greece sink to the bottom of the Aegean. But they can’t afford to see their own banks and pension funds sink with it.Europe wouldn’t be in this fix if the banks hadn’t lent the Greeks all that money in the first place. Both Europe’s sovereign debt bubble and the U.S. housing bubble were caused by reckless lending to feckless borrowers living way beyond their means. In the U.S., government-approved mortgage lenders peddled subprime mortgages to people who couldn’t possibly repay. Nobody noticed these mortgages were worthless until house prices collapsed, lenders foreclosed and taxpayers were forced to bail out the banks.Greece was the subprime borrower of Europe. The banks didn’t think too hard about how solvent it was. In retrospect, perhaps they should’ve been more worried about a country where 40 per cent of the workers are on the public payroll, and envelopes of cash for bribes are the normal way of doing business. Tax evasion is practically a duty. The Greek government cooked the books for years as the EU turned a blind eye. Once again, taxpayers are on the hook for the banks’ mistakes. The only upside is that the Europeans have stopped lecturing the Americans.

..

And Greece is just a tiny country. What about Italy? The Italians are €1.9-trillion in debt, and they aren’t about to give up their perks, either. Italy has more than half a million pensioners who retired under the age of 50. They will spend an average of 40 years in retirement, and they cost the system $13-billion a year. But what politician is going to cut them off? The government is propped up by a deeply entrenched jobs-for-votes system that is as Italian as spaghetti. Even tiny villages have dozens of people on the payroll to do non-existent jobs, paid for by the central government. Reducing the number of these people, or their salaries, is unthinkable. It’s exceedingly unlikely that the Italians will allow a bunch of Eurocrats to destroy their way of life. And Italy is far too big to fail. Therefore, the Italians, like the Greeks, will be inclined to tell the Eurocrats to go to hell.Too bad about the euro. It was such a nice idea, until the people got in the way.

Yes, indeed, that´s the problem about the European Union in general - people have got in the way. Most people are in favour of European cooperation, but not the kind of top down managed EU that we see today. And not the kind of EU, where unelected bureaucrats, like the presidential duo Barroso and van Rompuy, are trying to impersonate democratically elected leaders at all major "summits".

Thursday, 3 November 2011

This - and ten biking cops - is what´s in store for R.K. Pachauri and the rest of the COP 17 climate tourists "delegates"

Preparations for the annual UN climate change jamboree COP 17 are are intensifying in Durban. The host city has now proudly announced that it has acquired ten electric bicycles for police officers who patrol along the beachfront area. According to eThekwini mayor James Nxumalo the bicycles have been bought "in a bid to turn it (the city) a bit greener ahead of the COP 17 conference".

Nxumalo said yesterday that apart from trying to reduce carbon emissions, the city also wanted to decrease traffic volumes, especially during peak hours.

With this kind of impressive projects, surely the big meeting is going to be a huge success. At least those delegates - and there will be a lot of them - who prefer the beach, instead of the conference halls, will certainly enjoy the sight of the "green" beach police officers (the "cop 10") on bicycles. Although they should understand that the electricity for the bikes most likely comes from some of South Africa´s excellent coal power plants.

PS

Another bonus for the Durban climate tourists; they will not be bothered by beggars:

Street children and beggars are being rounded up ahead of the upcoming climate conference, the New Age reported on Wednesday.

The paper quoted the city’s metro police spokesperson Eugene Msomi saying all begging street children and adults would be rounded up because they mugged tourists.

"We often remove them from the streets when there are big events like the World Cup and major conferences, because some of them mug tourists and damage the image of the country," he said.Read the article here

Do you remember how Putin treated a female journalist, who´s question he did not like?

It is well known, that Russia´s ruler, former second rate KGB spy Vladimir Putin is an extremely unsympatethic man. Now, documents from the archive of BND, Germany´s intelligence agency, show that Putin is also a wife beater and a philanderer.

Vladimir Putin abused his wife and "had numerous sexual affairs" when he was a high-ranking KGB officer in Dresden, German secret service documents have alleged.

The documents from the archive of the BND, Germany's spy agency, paint a dark picture of the Russian prime minister, who plans to return to the presidency next year.

Gathering information through the work of an agent posing as an interpreter for Ludmilla Putina, Mr Putin's wife, the BND heard that the then youthful 33-year-old spy chief was a "wife beater and a philanderer" during his stint in the German city from 1985 to 1990.

The information surfaced in a story run by the newspaper Berliner Zeitung based on documents found by Erich Schmidt-Eenboom, a respected BND expert who has published books and papers on the agency.

Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Russian prime minister, dismissed the allegations in the documents, telling the Daily Telegraph that the "stories were complete nonsense."

In a series of meetings with the BND spy at the Putins' prefabricated house on 101 Radebergerstrasse, Mrs Putin, angered by her treatment at the hands of her husband, claimed to be the victim of a man prone to both violence and extramarital affairs. The German newspaper Bild said the allegations of philandering added substance to long-standing speculation that when the Putins left East Germany in 1990 following the collapse of the Berlin Wall, Vladimir left behind an illegitimate child.

It is sad that this man will continue as the de facto dictator of Russia after next year´s presidential "elections". Russians deserve better. But, as this blog has pointed out earlier, Putin´s house of cards will crumble, when the shale gas revolution will put an end to Russia´s dominating role as an international energy provider.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

Communist China, the "saviour" of the euro and the EU, has again showed its real, ugly face:

A group of 40 human rights activists, who wanted to see the blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng, were attacked and beaten by more than 100 thugs on Sunday afternoon outside of the village where Chen has been illegally locked up in his house with his family.

Liu Li, one of the activist told Christian Science Monitor´s Peter Ford what happened to him:

“About seven or eight men rushed up to me, kicked me to the ground, stole my cellphone, smashed my ankle and knocked me out,” “And the police did nothing when I reported what had happened.”

Another activist, Peng Zhonglin, added:

“It was legal for us to visit Chen,” he insisted, “we were beaten illegally but the local and central governments ignore this crime. It’s impossible that the authorities do not know what is happening.”

European mainstream media seem to be rather disinterested in reporting about the "Free Chen Guangcheng" movement. Could it have something to do with president Sarkozy´s and the other EU-leaders´ hopes that China will save the crisis-ridden eurozone? You do not bite the hand that is expected to feed you.

Tuesday, 1 November 2011

UNICEF - the organization that for long was known for its work for children worldwide - has now regrettably deteriorated to a promoter of the dubious "science" of human caused global warming. As South Africa prepares for the mega climate change jamboree, COP17 in Durban, UNICEF is demanding that (brainwashed) children should participate in the decision making:

"A new study commissioned by UNICEF in partnership with the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities, to be launched in mid-November 2011, highlights the importance of child participation in designing effective responses to climate change."

"Children need to be – and have a right to be – actively involved in the discussions and planning of mitigation and adaptation strategies, as well as policies and plans by various levels of government."

Europeanand international media have been full of praise for the French civil servant Jean-ClaudeTrichet, who yesterday retired as the president of the European Central Bank.

Trichet, who has been celebrated as the "de facto president ofEurope" and "the only one who´s delivered the leadership necessary during this crisis" (Marco Valli, chief economist at UnicCredit Global Research), has also been portrayed as a great humanist, with an interest in books and history (German television documentary).

However, what most political and media eulogists have chosen to forget is, that Trichet also was one of the main architects of the crisis-ridden euro project, that was built on a political, not economical foundation. That tragic mistake - not his stint at the ECB - will be his true legacy.

Global warming campaigners have failed to secure the support of TV
naturalist Sir David Attenborough, whose latest, stunning show, Frozen
Planet, began this week.

He says in an interview: ‘We survived the Dark Ages and the sacking of
Rome. Human beings are the most adaptable species that has ever
evolved … I have no doubt that we will find ways of coping with
climate change and everything else.’

And right he is! Although he is almost certainly wrong about human caused global warming.